Pokemon: Imperial Crusade
by Kasrkin33
Summary: When a system suddenly appears in the region of Ultramar. The Ultramarines investigate and discover a war raging on the third planet. A race is trying to wipe Humanity out, that race is called, 'Pokemorphs'". They angered the Imperium and they will pay.
1. Chapter 1

"This is Command, all forces report in."

"Iceblade in position."

"Vengeance in position."

"Retribution in position."

"Hawk is ready."

"Falcon in position."

"Hammer is ready for drop."

"Thunder is ready, loaded and awaiting targets."

"Lightning is fuelled and ready."

"Sunder ready."

"Eradicator ready for bombardment."

"All forces ready and in position Command."

"This is Command to all forces: wait for artillery barrage!"

"This is Thunder, preliminary barrage inbound, hang tight."

"HAHAHA! Look at those blasts! Those Pokemorph bastards are really paying for their mistakes now!"

"That's it barrage has lifted! Commence the attack! All forces: GO, GO, GO!"

"Charge!"

"Attack!"

"Give 'em Hell Guardsmen!"

"Vengeance!"

"Courage and honour!"

"Victorus aut Mortis!"

"For Emperor and Imperium!"

"Thunder! This Retribution, hostile flak guns in sectors Bravo One, Two and Three….Fuck that was close! Varus! Keep your fucking head DOWN! Thunder! We're pinned! Take out those damn guns! Fire mission danger close! Take them out Thunder before we lose more men! Over!"

"This is Thunder, fire mission danger close inbound. Over."

"This is Iceblade facing heavy resistance but have suffered no casualties. Proceeding to objective, over."

"Thanks Thunder flak guns destroyed! Retribution moving on. Over."

"Rodger Retribution. Thunder copies all. Out."

"Enemy tank inbound! Take cover! Varus, Decius! Take it out with the launcher, now!"

"Yes, sir! Die you little bitches."

"Back-blast clear! Firing!"

"Haha! Good shot you two! Now move up and take those emplacements!"

"Sir!"

"Command, this is Retribution. Two squads at half strength. Have combined them into a single squad to compensate, over."

"Understood Retribution. New orders: Enemy heavy guns are pounding Vengeance, they are nearby so go and take them out. Over."

"Will do, Retribution out."

"Let's go blow up those guns!"

"Retribution, this is Vengeance. We are heavy bombardment but we have suffered light casualties. Thunder can't shell the guns without hitting you. We'll hold here until you deal with those guns. Over."

"Understood, out. All squads with me! We're gonna blow up some heavy artie guns."

"Sir, yes sir!"

"Move, move, move!"

"Sir! Arial contacts…oh fuck. ZARDS INCOMING! LOOK OUT!"

"Take them out! Fire! For fuck's sake, OPEN FIRE!"

"Lightning! We have Zard Morphs closing we need….arrrgh!"

"Squad A is down! Someone kill that son of a fuck!"

"Lightning inbound, hang tight over!"

"Hurry the fuck up will you! We just lost two more squads…fucking hell that was close!"

"I see the bastards, engaging now. Guns-go-guns!"

"Nice shooting Lightning!"

"You're welcome, over."

"Move it!"

"So, those are the guns?"

"Yeah, they are."

"Squads Delta, Echo and Foxtrot will take the left. Squads Gamma, Omega and Zulu will take the right. Everyone else with me."

"Ready sir."

"Ready."

"Alright…CHARGE!"

"Kill them all!"

"For Humanity!"

"Left flank clear!"

"Right flank clear."

"Battery clear."

"Good! Now turn those guns around and use them!"

"Sir."

"Vengeance this, is Retribution. We have taken the battery, over."

"Thanks Retribution, Vengeance out."

"Move it people we have to clear the rest of this base!"

"Hey sir?"

"Yes Private?"

"Remember what it was like before you got here?"

"Just."

"Yeah, that was one hell of a tough campaign."


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Master Marneus Augustus Calgar was addressing his battle brothers in the wake of the siege of Ultramar. "My Brothers you have fought the traitorous hordes of Chaos with courage and honour, and I salute you all," his voice resonated with experience and confidence as the light of Macragge's sun glinted off his bionic left eye, making it shine like a polished gem.

"But my brothers I have received troubling news in the form of an intercepted public broadcast. If you would be so kind as to show them Sergeant Chronus?" he said gesturing to the Ultramarines best tank commander Brother-Sergeant Antaro Chronus, his voice becoming grim.

The marine nodded as he stepped up to the holo-table and inserted the holo-coil recording, saying his tone serious, "One of our scout ships picked this up at a backwater system not far from Ultramar. This record was a broadcast coming from a city on the third planet in the system and is not only about a week or two old, but it is also rather disturbing." An image of the now dead boy and his vulpix flickered to life.

The two were surrounded by a screaming, whooping crowd of abominations, which were seemingly made from a mixture of human and animal. What was clear was that were baying for their blood as they were being dragged to a raised platform in the middle of the crowd.

An unseen voice screamed, "Brothhhersss and sssissstersss! Today we witnesss thhhe deathhhsss offf anothhher two inffferior beingsss!" The crowd of creatures roared in assent with some individual cries being heard over the noise of the crowd, "Death to all humans and Pokemon!"

"Death to inferior beings!"

"Kill them all!"

"We are the master race! We are superior!"

The Ultramarines and Ultramar PDF watching the recording clenched their fists and jaws in barley restrained fury, but the worst was yet to come.

When the two were dragged on top of the platform the speaker revealed itself to be a blasphemous mix of human and snake wearing the uniform of a military officer. It pointed at the two and yelled again, "Thessse two infffidelsss were fffound to be ssstealing money and fffood fffrom honessst, hard working and godly Pokemorphhhsss! And fffor their crimesss aginssst Arceusss and the Pokemorphhhsss we will kill thhhem!" the crowd began to cheer and whoop with even more energy than before, as a group of large 'Pokemorphs' marched up to the stage and prepared to attack the two.

The fox-like creature next to the boy suddenly let out a titanic blast of fire out of its mouth into the crowd killing scores of them and incinerating the would-be executioners as the inferno spread through the crowd rapidly due to their tight proximity. This violent act of defiance raised a loud cheer from the gathered guardsmen, and respectful salutes from the Ultramarines as the doomed creature defended the human child with no apparent thought for its own safety. It continued to torch the crowd in an effort to keep the child safe from the Pokemorphs.

The creature didn't stop attacking even when the crowd swarmed all over it and was finally silenced when the crowd stomped it into the ground, killing it. As soon as it died the crowd cheered triumphantly and immediately set upon the child with violent rage that knew no bounds.

It was with great discomfort to the Imperial soldiers that the crowd was acting much the same way that Khornate worshippers displayed when in the grips of a blood-maddened frenzy. Those that could not get to the child were cheering the others on. By now the Imperial soldiers were in the grips of a righteous wrath so great that each and every soldier swore to avenge the child and his protector.

The child was being attacked without pity or remorse as he was bitten, burnt, stabbed, punched, kicked, shocked and stoned with the morphs showing little or no restraint in their attacks on the boy.

Soon the boy was lifted up and torn limb from limb by the baying crowd in a spray of blood. As soon as the boy was dead the mob became jubilant in their celebrations.

Antaro Chronus looked at the gathered warriors and saw that they were all raging and baying for Pokemorph blood in righteous retribution.

It serves them right, Chronus thought. They have doomed themselves for daring to claim that humanity is inferior to them and for broadcasting it into space.

He looked at Lord Calgar and saw him raise his hand for silence as the master of the Ultramarines spoke, "What we have seen these 'Pokemorphs' do is unforgivable." the assembled warriors cheered, as Lord Calgar spoke once more with fire and determination, "We can not. We WILL not let them escape retribution. We shall go to their planet. And we will kill them! Battle-brothers! Warriors of Ultramar! Are you with me?"

The crowd of Ultramarian warriors roared their assent to the Chapter Master as he stirred their hearts to bravery and righteous wrath. Lord Calgar spoke once more, "Board your ships and prepare to move out! In the name of the Primarch and the Emperor we will make these 'Pokemorphs' pay for their crimes!"

Individual soldiers cried out oaths and declarations of their own, "Kill the Pokemorphs!"

"No mercy!"

"No prisoners!"

"Death to the Pokemorphs!"

"Yeah let's show them who the 'inferior' race really is!"

"For Emperor and Imperium!"

As the guardsmen and women marched off still immersed in thoughts of holy retribution and the glorious Xenocidial campaign that they had been chosen to under take.

Marneus Calgar turned and said to his captains, "Prepare for war brothers. The First, Third, Fourth and Tenth companies will go and retake the system for the Imperium."

Captain Mikael Fabian of Third Company spoke, "What of these 'Pokemon'? Are they to be purged as well the Pokemorphs?"

"We shall see." Calgar replied, "I will decide whether or we purge them once the Pokemorphs are dead and the system secure."

Captain Uriel Ventris of the Fourth Company raised a hand and asked, "What of the Inquisition? If they find out about this they may declare us to be heretics."

Calgar smirked and said, "We won't tell them. And if any get too nosey then they will be…dealt with. But come we have a war to prepare for."

As one the Ultramarines moved off and began to prepare their Companies for the upcoming war, the Pokemorphs were blissfully unaware of the gathering storm.


	3. Chapter 3

The four Ultramarines Captains Agemman, Mikael Fabian, Uriel Ventris and Abraxxon marched up the crowded steps to the Temple of Correction. The sea of pilgrims parted before the four holy warriors.

As the four were Ultramarines it gave them, an unwritten priority over all of the pilgrims, who wished to gaze upon the Primarch's holy corpse.

There must have thousands of pilgrims on the steps to the Temple and many of them would have sacrificed all of their material belongings just to come here. But the Captains' were the Space Marines. The Angels of Death. And they took priority over all of them.

Their augmented bodies made light work of the climb to the Temple. And the climb was ascended within roughly five minutes.

As one the Marines entered the Temple and knelt before their Primarch Roboute Guillman and prayed. "My lord we head off to launch a campaign in thy holy name. Grant us victory over the foul Pokemorphs and let us be the salvation of the embattled humans on the planet."

The pilgrims all kept a respectful distance from the sons of Guillman as prayed to their Primarch in preparation for the coming campaign.

As the four companies of Marines gathered and boarded their various Strike Cruisers. The Battle Barge _Octavion_ left its moorings in orbit above Macragge and rendezvoused with gathering Imperial fleet that was marshalling in orbit above the cavern world of Calth.

Then when all Imperial Guard and Space Marine vessels were ready, the order was given to initiate the warp jump that would take them to the system and its desperate human and Pokemon inhabitants.

The fragile veil of reality was torn asunder as the mighty war fleet departed the Ultramar system.

Not all of the Pokemorphs of Second Earth were completely ignorant of approaching Imperials. Some of the more psychicly attuned members of their race, suffered nightmares, hallucinations and visions of the righteous wrath, that was bearing down on them all.

But due to the arrogance of the Pokemorphs any forewarning that their psychics gave them were ignored. How could a filthy and a moronic such as Humanity possibly travel the stars; much less have an army capable of threatening the future of their entire race? They argued that it was they, the Pokemorphs that were destined to rule and not Humanity.

And so because of their arrogance they were ill prepared for the arrival of the Imperial forces from Ultramar. The storm had departed, and judgement was heading to the Pokemorphs.


	4. Chapter 4

While the fleet from Ultramar was still making its way through the warp to liberate it from the Pokemorphs, a mighty force stirred. In a forest on Second Earth lay the forgotten ruins of a once mighty fortress, made after the carnage of a war that had been long forgotten by all the planet's inhabitants.

The ruins were forgotten, but they were far from abandoned. In the heart of the once mighty bastion, mighty black-clad giants silently stalked the dusty corridors, towers and passages alert for any intruders. While concealed sentry-guns and Devastator squads covered the approaches to the fortress.

In the main hall Shadow Captain Kayvaan Shrike of the Raven Guard Third Company addressed his Sergeants, "Sergeant Vannes what news of the human and Pokemon alliance forces, do they fare well against the Morphs?" The Sergeant in question stepped forwards with his hands clasped behind his back.

Like his Captain, Veteran Sergeant Ardiaac Vannes had paper-white skin, coal black eyes and hair, his voice was calm and level, "Not well I'm afraid. The base of the West Europe resistance has been discovered. And an armoured column is right now making its way to the base." He smiled as he continued, "But the only route that allows them to take armoured vehicles, is a narrow gorge that takes about two hours to traverse. The north side is sheer vertical with outcrops and, a natural fault line near its base; while the southern side is a sharp slope littered with boulders and excellent fire lanes."

"You are suggesting that we ambush the convoy as it attempts to traverse the gorge." Shrike stated bluntly. His Sergeant nodded as Shrike continued, "Very well done Brother. I was about to order the Company to do just that. Have the Scout and Tactical squads place demolition charges on the fault line. When I give the signal, the Devastator squads will take out the first and last vehicles in the convoy with lascannons. Once the two vehicles are down, the charges will be detonated and all survivors are to be killed, understood? Move out, prepare for battle and in the name of Corax and the Emperor we will triumph."

His Sergeants replied as one, "Yes Brother-Captain."

The Raven Guard set upon completing the task that their Captain had set them. With about half an hour the demolition charges were laid and the Raven Guard Third Company were waiting for the convoy to enter the ambush site.

They waited for good hour or so before the first of the Pokemorph scouts were spotted with contemptuous ease by the Space Marines hiding amongst the jet-black rocks of the southern side of the gorge.

The xenos moved with care amongst the rocks at the bottom of the gorge, trying to pick up any scent that was not Pokemorph. Captain Shrike grunted under his Corvus helm; these Pokemorphs knew nothing about the armour and equipment that the Imperium's finest used!

Which was a good thing, thought Shrike, they don't fear the foes that they know, but they will fear the foe that they don't know.

The Pokemorphs did not know it, but Captain Shrike's Techmarines had successfully hacked their communications and the Marines were listening in on their conversations. A young voice came over the morphs radio net, "I don't know why those bastard humans and Pokemon keep fighting us Sarge. I mean why don't they just submit to our will? We are the master race after all."

Shrike's eyes narrowed in disgust as the reply came through, this time the voice was hoarse and scratchy as it drawled, "Private Smith, I have no idea why they keep fighting. And you are right, we are the master race. Maybe the humans and Pokemon are dumber than we thought. But either way, I just love killing them, especially their young."

Thirty five more uneventful minutes passed by before the Morph Sergeant spoke again, "All right I haven't seen or smelt nothing, let's get back to the convoy and tell them, the way's clear."

"Yeah, I hear you. This place gives me the creeps. Do any of you guys feel that were being watched?" whispered Smith in a fearful voice as he jogged back to where the convoy was waiting not knowing that it was Shrike who glaring daggers at the retreating shape of the Pokemorphs.

The convoy consisted of two heavy tanks one at the front and one at the back. The tanks however were half the size of a Baneblade super heavy tank. In between the two tanks were twenty A.. The A.. were roughly the same size of the Razorback troop transports that were common amongst the Astartes. From the life signs being detected by his auspex scanner, Shrike was estimating that the number of morph soldiers in gorge was about four hundred infantry in the A.. plus another eight for the two tank crews and forty for the drivers of the A..

It was then that Sergeant Vannes voxed in on encrypted channel in battle-cant, "_Brother-Captain, the scouts have spotted what looks like a civilian news crew in the third A.P.C from the front. It would appear that the Pokemorph government wish to show their world what their military can do. Wait…I'm picking something up on one of the civilian channels. Patching it through."_

A small viewscreen opened up in the bottom left hand corner of every Marine's display screen. The scouts were right; it was a news crew that was tagging along with the soldiers in a display of propaganda to the Pokemorph public and the remaining humans and Pokemon on the planet.

Keeping the viewscreen at the bottom left hand corner, Shadow Captain Shrike gave the signal to attack with a shout, _"For Corax and the Emperor! Victourus aut mortis!"_ Two pure white beams screamed out from the positions where the Devastator Marines with lascannons were concealed, and slammed in to the weaker rear armour of the two heavy tanks and with a colossal explosion the tanks detonated showering the startled Pokemorph soldiers with white hot debris, shrapnel and flames.

However before the echoes of the two explosions had even begun to fade; Captain Shrike detonated the demolition charges along the fault line on the northern face of the gorge. The gargantuan explosions blew the fault line wide open. To the Pokemorphs' horror nearly the entire north side of the gorge sheared away from the gorge towards them. Those few Pokemorphs who attempted to stop the titanic rock-fall with their powers were methodically picked off by Raven Guard snipers.

The rockslide buried all but one of the A.. under thousands of tons of rock and in a heartbeat what had once been a mighty armoured column was now a shattered wreck with vast clouds of swirling black smoke and massive clouds of rock dust pouring out into the sky.

The Space Marines' auto-senses cut through the dust and smoke with ease, to reveal the number of survivors was a mere twenty two Pokemorphs: Twenty soldiers and two civilian news crew members. Smiling Captain Shrike activated his jump-pack and along with his squad Shrike's Wing; descended on the dazed Pokemorph survivors like avenging angels on wings of fire.

The first two died before they had time to register his arrival. Shrike landed on the middle two of the group, his armoured weight pulping them both, causing instant death. The third to be killed died from a vicious slash from Shrike that opened the Morph's torso from the collar bone all the way down to the hip. The next died from a bolt pistol round to the head.

A few of the Pokemorph soldiers recovered their wits and returned fire with their assault rifles and shotguns. However the rounds were turned aside by the Marines' power armour and little damage besides scratching the paint-work.

But the Raven Guard showed that they were superior in their skill at arms and in short order the only survivors were the news crew. The soldiers had been cut down to the last and the news crew were trapped. Captain Shrike marched up to the Morph holding the news camera and asked it coldly, "Is it still transmitting?"

The terrified morph could only nod, as Shrike spoke again, "Good, then I won't kill you. Yet." The creature looked like a humanised yellow and black rat of some kind with bright red cheeks.

It was female. It was scared. And Shrike glared at the creature in disgust as cloud of dust finally settled down, and said coldly, "Pokemorphs of Second Earth. I am Shadow Captain Kayvaan Shrike of the Raven Guard Third Company and let me assure you that this…" indicating the wreckage and corpses strewn around them, "is only just the beginning. Your crimes against Humanity have been noted. Your race has been judged. Did you really think that you could get away your attacks?" he shook his head, as though he was more disappointed with them than anything else, "You thought yourselves superior to Humanity and in doing so you have made an enemy of the Imperium of Man. It is a mistake that you will not make again."

Shrike nodded at his Assault squad and said, "Kill it." The Pokemorph looked scared as he heard a knife being drawn from its scabbard. An Assault Marine called Brother Tharius stabbed the freak of nature in the back with his combat knife. In human terms the combat knife was the size of a short sword. The blade was a standard issue mono-molecular and it cleaved through the Pokemorph's skin, muscle and bone. It punctured the main valves with ease and caused fatal blood loss causing instant death.

Shrike and the other Marines ignored the corpse as it fell to the ground as Brother Tharius cleaned and sheathed his combat knife. Shrike calmly drew his pistol as he said chillingly, "Judgement is coming for you and your misbegotten kind. Do not resist." He fired his pistol into the Pokemorph's face. The mass-reactive high explosive round tore her head off in an explosion blood, brains and bone.

Shrike caught the camera with ease as it fell from the corpse's flailing arms and spoke once more, "Humans and Pokemon of Second Earth. We stand by you in this your darkest days. More of us are coming and all have come to save you. Stand firm my brothers and sisters. Stand firm for the might of the Imperium's finest is with you. Do not fear us, for we are your salvation. We are the Space Marines and we know no fear." Once he was finished speaking Shrike put his fist through the camera lens, destroying it.

Standing up he said, "Let's go brothers we have a war to plan." He flicked his vox on and spoke to Sergeant Vannes, _"Sergeant Vannes, contact the West European resistance and get them to our headquarters. We will need every man we can get for the fights ahead."_

Shrike glanced at the identification runes on his visor and was gratified when he saw that they had not taken a single casualty from the engagement with the hostile forces.

His men were all good. He had trained them hard and they were quickly proving that they were the best soldiers on the planet.

But then they were the Space Marines.


	5. Chapter 5

RAVEN GUARD BASE CAMP

As Captain Kayvaan Shrike dispatched Veteran-Sergeant Ardiaac Vannes and his squad to evacuate the West European resistance movement to the sanctuary of the Raven Guard's base camp. The Ultramarines and the rest of the Imperial fleet were just three days from reaching the system. The Pokemorph government's tried desperately to calm the populace and reassure them that these 'Raven Guard Space Marines' were just an illusion, a hoax created by the humans in a vain attempt to scare the Pokemorphs into submission. Nearly all the Pokemorphs believed the lies that their governments told them.

The few that didn't were ignored, or silenced by the government.

Shrike didn't care whether or not the Pokemorphs believed that they were real. All he cared was liberating this world from the Pokemorphs. And now they waited for the Ultramarines to arrive and they would make the Pokemorphs learn to fear Humanity.

He voxed Veteran-Sergeant Ardiaac Vannes and as he had back in the gorge, spoke in battle-cant, "_Brother-Sergeant Vannes_ _how far are you from the resistance base? Over."_

_"Not far. I can see it now, I'm roughly three hundred metres from the entrance proceeding inside. Over."_

_"Be careful Brother and may Corax watch over you. Out."_

"_May Corax watch over you as well Brother. Vannes out."_

Shrike cut the vox channel and looked at Librarian Karos saying, "Do the Pokemorphs have any idea that we are here?"

The Librarian closed his eyes and focused before saying, "No, Brother. They have no idea that we are here. Let's hope that Veteran-Sergeant Vannes completes his mission."

"Sergeant Vannes knows what he's doing."

"I know Brother. I know."

WEST EUROPEAN RESISTANCE BASE

Major Carl Francis looked away from the television screen, contemplating what he had just seen. Captain Hans Schroeder walked up to him and said in a strong Berlin accent, "Herr Major? The sentries are reporting that a giant of a man called 'Veteran-Sergeant Ardiaac Vannes' wishes to speak with you. He says it's of the utmost importance."

The Major looked at the Captain and asked him, "Send him in." The Captain saluted and marched off to tell the Raven Guard that the Major would see them.

Captain Jacob Smith next to him whispered, "Are you sure that we can trust them sir?"

"I don't know Captain, I don't know."

The first thing that Major Francis and Captain Smith knew of Vannes' arrival in the room was when he spoke, "Greetings. I am Veteran-Sergeant Ardiaac Vannes of the Raven Guard Third Company. My squad and I have been instructed by Shadow Captain Kayvaan Shrike to bring you and your men to our base camp. The Pokemorphs are unaware of where we are stationed and it will be from our base that we shall begin the reclamation of this planet."

The two officers backed off from the Space Marine in fear as they took in the massively armoured form of the Astartes. Major Francis gestured to the Lieutenant and said, "I am Major Carl Francis and this is Captain Jacob Smith and we thank you for coming to our aid. Even though I don't trust you, at this stage in the war, we need all the help we can get. Before we can begin you should know that I am not the overall commander. I am the commander of this base for now as the Colonel is resting from an injury."

The Marine's helmet was clipped to his waist and as he was about to speak again…the entire base shook slightly, and dust fell from the roof. The room shook again and again, it was an artillery barrage. An alarm sounded causing the resistance fighters to scramble to their posts in a hurry.

The Marines wordlessly donned their helmets as Captain Shrike voxed in, "_Sergeant Vannes, there is a large force of Pokemorphs approaching the base. Your orders are to hold the base until we can get to you and the other resistance fighters. Thunderhawk gunships have been launched are inbound to provide fire support and evacuation. Victorus aut mortis, Brother. Shrike out."_

Vannes looked at the Major and said, "Looks like were going to fighting alongside each other sooner rather than later. There is a large Pokemorph force on the way. Some of our gunships have been scrambled and will be here shortly along with more of my Battle-Brothers. But in the mean time," Vannes racked the slide on his bolter and loosened his power sword as his squad prepared their weapons for the fight, "where do you need us?"

Major Francis was startled but recovered with admirable speed, "I thank you for the support. I will need you to hold any breach in our defences… does your Captain have any information on where they will be coming from?"

Shrike voxed in again, "Major Francis? This is Captain Shrike. The Pokemorph assault force is coming from the North, North-West and the South. The Northern assault force numbers around fifty. The North-Western assault force is around sixty. The Southern assault force is the largest, numbering over two hundred with tanks, artillery and air support."

"What's their E.T.A. Captain?" Major Francis asked nervously.

"Two minutes. And _Raven's Talon_ can't bombard them in that time. I have the E.T.A. of the Thunderhawks however: Thirty minutes."

Vannes looked at the two officers saying, "My squad and I will hold against the Southern assault force. Your men must hold the other entrances until the rest of the Raven Guard arrive. Major, we need a guide to take us to the Southern entrance."

He left the room with his squad in tow, as they entered the corridor a young trooper called out to them, "This way to the Southern entrance sir; just follow me!"

The trooper took the Astartes squad to the Southern entrance, passing through squads of Pokemon and human soldiers. As they neared the Southern entrance the sound of gunfire became audible causing the trooper to snarl, "Shit! Sounds like the Morphs have already breached the base! Come on, we're almost there!"

The Astartes broke into a run as Vannes asked Arias, "Arias is your heavy bolter ready?"

Arias nodded and said, "It's ready."

Looking to his left Vannes asked, "Tharios how's your multi-melta?"

"Charged and ready." The Astartes replied tersely.

The trooper pointed at a ramp, saying, "At the bottom of the ramp is the Southern entrance. I'll head to Security. See if I can keep tabs on those bastards."

With that said the trooper headed down another corridor to Security, locking the door behind him. The Astartes carried on to the ramp as the gunfire started to decrease in noise.

Sergeant Garoth howled in delight, revealing his canine fangs as he and his squad cut down another human, defending the base. He could smell their fear as he fired another burst from his machine gun, taking another in the stomach. He grinned, this was fun. He never got tired of killing those moronic humans and the filthy Pokemon. As he looked at the survivors of his squad, he could tell that they were out to avenge their fallen comrades. Their bodies lay where they had fallen, cut down as they had entered the bunker complex.

He looked at his Corporal, a Scyther Morph, saying, "At this rate, we'll have cleared this base in a few hours!" The Scyther was on the verge on saying something…when there was an almighty bang as something punched into the Scyther's torso, and detonated from the inside a shower of gore a split-second later. Suppressing their revulsion and horror at their companion's violent death, the Morph soldiers slowly turned to face the shooter and did a double take when they saw…them.

A line of eight impossibly massive figures, all standing in a line…the one in the middle bore a large gun with coils of smoke curling away from the muzzle. The figure spoke, his voice deep, resonant and full of spite and hatred, "Take not one more step. Enemy of Man."

"Get out of our way filth and surrender to the master race!" Garoth snarled.

The figure merely laughed, "Me, surrender? To you? I think not. If you think that you can take us on. Then by all means, you are welcome to die fighting."

Garoth howled as he and his squad unleashed their powers, the line was struck by a wave of fire. It was a favoured tactic of Garoth: Burn them and shoot them as they ran. He and his squad laughed as the smoke from the flames concealed the area denying them the sight of burnt humans.

They stopped laughing when the voice spoke again, "Our turn." It was punctuated by another loud bang and the soldier on his left dieing with half his torso missing.

The colossal figures advanced in lock-step firing with unerring accuracy as they took every step, until only Garoth remained.

Vannes grabbed the terrified Pokemorph that had tried to kill him and his squad with that pathetic excuse of an incendiary attack. Glaring at the creature his took in its features: Blue eyes, red-orangey-black fur, dog-like canines and Sergeant stripes on the uniform it wore.

After securing his bolter into his thigh holster, Vannes drew his combat knife and placing to the creature's throat he said, "Radio back, tell them that the way is clear but that you lost your squad." The Marine's tone was one that brooked no challenge from the Morph.

Nodding weakly Garoth activated his radio and said, "Command…this is Sergeant Garoth. Have gained entry but at the cost of my squad…all hostiles have been eliminated. Over."

"Good work Sergeant, sorry about your squad. Hold tight reinforcements are coming. E.T.A. is three minutes. Out."

"Rodger Command. Out." He cut the radio link saying to the Marines, "What are you going to do to me now?"

Though it was a question, Vannes could tell from the Morph's tone that it already had an idea of what he was going to do to it.

Vannes didn't answer immediately, instead he stabbed it with his knife in the chest saying, "That." He casually dropped the corpse saying, "All right get into position. Check weapons and ammo count." He thought for a moment or two before continuing, "And somebody booby trap those bodies."

He glanced at the chronometer in his display: Twenty minutes until the rest of the Company arrived. They only had to hold the Pokemorphs until that point in time and then turn their defensive action into a counter-attack of their own.

Arias knelt by the bodies, carefully placing frag grenades and other explosive devices on them. Once he was finished, he ran back up the ramp and took cover behind some fallen debris. His position gave him an excellent view of the door through which the Pokemorphs would have to go through.

Vannes quickly glanced at his chronometer and saw that the hostiles would be arriving in seconds. As if on cue two Pokemorph soldiers carefully walked in, with their assault rifles held at the ready; the two seemed sickened by the carnage that lay before them: Exploded bodies, with guts decorating the walls as though some maniac had liberally thrown buckets of blood and organs all over the place.

Vannes signalled for his squad to wait for more hostiles to enter the kill-zone. Their patience was rewarded, as fifty Pokemorph soldiers quickly poured out of the door. Vannes cursed the fact that they didn't have any Metal Storm Frag rounds; they would have been perfect for this kind of scenario. He quickly dismissed the thought, focussing instead on the enemy forces gathering at bottom of the ramp and saw that their numbers had swollen to sixty four. Nodding to himself, he gave the order to open fire as the time until the rest of the Company arrived was fifteen minutes.

The only warning that the Pokemorphs had, was the sound of the multi-melta hissing a split-second before it fired into the packed ranks of Pokemorph soldiers vaporising dozens in an instant. It hit the soldiers at the same time that booby-traps went off. The heavy bolter soon joined in along with the rest of the Raven Guard and together they turned the kill-zone red with blood.

Chaos, confusion and terror ran riot within the Pokemorph ranks as the Raven Guard gunned over half of them down before any kind of response could be formed. The heavy bolter's high rate of fire coupled with Arias' deadly accuracy meant that not a single shell missed a Pokemorph soldier.

Pokemorph squad leaders became frantic in their attempts to call for reinforcements to aid them, but no matter how hard they tried, they could not get through to Command as each time they tried to hide; the Raven Guard methodically gunned them down, their bolters set on single shot.

Vannes risked a glance at his chronometer as he ducked back down into cover to reload. The reinforcements were ten minutes out. Bullets pinged off the Marines' ceramite plating as some of the Pokemorphs returned fire on the Marines, but they could do little but scratch the paint work.

As he popped back up, he saw that some of the Pokemorph soldiers had released smoke-bombs to cover their advance. But the Marine's auto-senses cut through the smoke with ease and their accuracy remained undiminished. The Pokemorphs after seeing that their guns were useless threw them away and tried their elemental powers.

Torrents of electricity lashed at the Space Marines, but their power armour kept them safe from the currents of power that flowed around them. Fire licked at them but their armour was proof against such weak flames. Ice beams shot at them, but the Marines smashed free of the ice with mere shrugs of their shoulders. Water beams smashed into them, but still the Marines stood. Great gusts of wind howled at them, but were silenced by unmovable Astartes.

The combat area was quickly obscured by acrid smoke that hung in the air like mist. Upon seeing that there was eight minutes left, stalked forwards like vengeful nightmarish spectres. In the face of the challenge posed by the Marines, the few surviving Pokemorphs fled without heed or cohesion, all trying to outrun the wrath of the Astartes. None made it out of the tunnels alive as they were swiftly cut down by Squad Vannes as they relentlessly advanced upon the Morphs.

The Marines were turning their defence into a nigh-unstoppable counter assault of their own. They marched over the bodies of the Pokemorph soldiers in their advance to the door. More Pokemorph soldiers came through the tunnel and were met with the same fate as their companions. The Astartes marched down the tunnel side by side.

The Marines burst out into the plain, gunning down two squads of Morphs and causing others to scatter and return fire.

Six minutes.

Tanks were called up, only for Tharios to destroy them with his multi-melta before they could fire a single shot.

Five minutes.

Fast attack helicopters were summoned but crashed as their pilots were killed by the heavy bolter.

Four minutes.

Fighters and fighter-bombers strafed the Raven Guard, only for the squad to redirect their firing and shoot them down one by one. Black smoke, explosions and shrapnel flew into the sky.

Three minutes.

A squadron of heavy tanks were called up from the rear and trundled towards the Marines as they butchered squad after squad.

Two minutes.

The tanks were halfway from the Raven Guard squad.

One minute. Dots appeared on the horizon but none save the Marines saw them.

The tanks reached the Marines…and violently exploded.

Vannes looked up and saw the boxy, black shapes of what looked around twelve Thunderhawk gunships. And as they roared overhead, he swore that he had never seen a more welcome sight.

They formed into squadrons of three and strafed the surprised Morphs, heavy bolter, Hellstrike missiles and lascannons tore through their confused ranks as twenty Assault Marines leapt from one of the transports. As the Assault Marines swooped down into the middle of their command centre on their jump-packs, a squadron of Thunderhawks landed, disgorging the rest of Third Company and the sole Dreadnought that they had brought with them.

The transports took off as soon as the troops were off and rejoined the rest of the gunships in destroying the rest of the Pokemorph assault force. But by then they were in complete and utter disarray from the sudden assault from the ground and air.

The Dreadnought readied its assault cannon firing into disarrayed soldiers with destructive results. Whole squads were torn apart by the high calibre rounds. Many were blown in half by the massive high explosive slugs.

The Pokemorph assault force was swiftly broken by the Raven Guard's precision strikes. The enemy soldiers were quickly forced into a retreat, the retreat became a rout and the rout became a blood bath. Pokemorph soldiers threw down their arms and begged for mercy from the wrathful Space Marines but there was no mercy to be had on the blood-drenched plains. The Raven Guard and their allies mercilessly executed all but one of the enemy soldiers.

They gave him a message to deliver to the rest of his kind: When judgment comes none of your kind shall be spared. To ensure that the Pokemorph remembered the message, Shadow Captain Kayvaan Shrike wrote it out on a piece of card and stapled it to the creature's chest.

The creature screamed in pain as the Captain stapled the message to its chest causing a Captain from the resistance to shout at it, "Shut it yah pussy! The nearest settlement is a mile away so we ain't gonna give yah a transport! Yah have legs so yah can walk! And yah ain't gonna get there by screamin' like a little girl!"

The creature looked at the Shadow Captain as he stood up and simply said, "Run." The Raven Guard had never seen anything run away as fast as the creature did, kicking up a small cloud of dust as it ran away from the human and Pokemon forces as fast as its legs could carry it.

As soon as it was out of sight Shrike turned to the resistance members saying, "All right get in the Thunderhawks, we are leaving this place. Now move it!" The troopers and the Raven Guard swiftly boarded the transports and took off on stealth trajectories back to the Raven Guard headquarters.

The day was nearly over and by the time that the Ultramarines were there, the Pokemorphs would know fear.


	6. Chapter 6

**RAVEN GUARD THUNDERHAWK ECHO-THREE**

Major Carl Francis looked at the soldiers around him, a mix of human and Pokemon resistance fighters all veterans of the war. Some of them had fought at the start of the war others had started at later stages in the war. They had all fought, bled and died by each others side for thirty years to protect their races. And now? Now they had help from some very powerful allies.

One of the soldiers said, "So sir? What do you make of these guys?" the Private pointed out the view-port indicating the Raven Guard insignia on the Thunderhawk's wing.

Francis shrugged and said, "Well to be honest. I don't really know what to make of them. But I am damn glad that they are on our side."

"Too bloody right Major! Those Raven Guard tore through those Pokemorph bastards like they were nothing! That's why they are in charge of liberating our world." stated a British Colonel called Richard Haige.

It was a well-known fact, that the only three countries that had not fallen to the Pokemorphs were Scotland, the Russian Federation and the United States of America. All three countries had their own reasons for being able to hold out against the attacks: Scotland's mostly mountainous geography greatly favoured the defenders and the Pokemorphs had made minute gains for heavy casualties. The Russian Federation's large population meant that they could sustain a larger army than others; the infamous 'Russian Winter' utterly crippled all of the Pokemorphs' efforts to conquer it and the few survivors were always quickly mopped up by the Russian forces who were well equipped and prepared for the Russian weather. America had held due to its gargantuan population meaning that they had the largest armed forces, massive size, hugely varied terrain, strong economy which allowed them to equip their army, navy and air force and militia groups formed from willing citizens to assist their soldiers. That and they all three countries had nuclear weapon stockpiles that could be used at moments notice.

Iran was also holding out against the Pokemorphs, although Haige suspected that the reason was mostly because of their fanatical armed forces and civilians, rather than good leadership and tactics. Parts of Switzerland, France, Germany and many other countries were also holding out, due to their mountainous terrain and locals who knew how to fight in it to deadly effect.

The Pokemorphs could win on the open battlefield where they could use their powers and mobility to the fullest. But in enclosed spaces, their powers had to be restricted in order to prevent them from killing their own soldiers as well as the humans and Pokemon troops. Their mobility was also limited so the humans and Pokemon could easily out-flank, ambush, kill them and retreat before the enemy could retaliate.

Haige looked around the Thunderhawk, his stern grey eyes taking in every detail as he took his helmet off and ran a gloved hand through his short grey hair. As he placed his helmet back on he said, "Even though the Raven Guard are vastly superior to the Pokemorphs. They are going to need all the info that they can get." The slash marks on his face from when he had gone toe-to-toe with a Growlithe Morph in hand-to-hand combat had transformed his face into gruesome parody of a smile.

The furry bastard had put up one hell of a tough fight. It had managed to badly maul his face, arms and chest before finally being over-powered and killed by the Colonel stabbing his combat knife into its throat and chest. The freak of nature's severed head was currently resting on his lap as he had refused to leave without his trophy.

Haige was startled by the Shadow Captain when he voxed in, "Ah Colonel Haige. You must be the overall commander of the resistance force for West Europe. I am Shadow Captain Kayvaan Shrike, I command the Raven Guard Third Company. And for the moment we are the only Imperial presence in the system. But that is likely to change."

"What do you mean?" the Colonel's reply was cautious and wary as was revealed by his tone.

"I mean Colonel, that because this system is near Ultramar. It is highly likely that the Ultramarines will come in force to retake the system."

"Are you sure about this Captain?"

"Very. When we dropped out of the warp two weeks ago, to fix a dangerous Geller field fault, we picked up a transmission of a public execution of a five year old and his Pokemon companion. We also detected an Ultramarine scout ship nearby. So it is reasonable to assume that the Ultramarines will not let the execution go unanswered."

"Are you and the Ultramarines going kill all of the Pokemorphs?"

"Yes." Shrike's response was calm and neutral. The Colonel nodded slowly as he acknowledged the Shadow Captain's statement.

"That's all I needed to hear."

After a moment of thinking the Colonel said, "Captain Shrike, as powerful as your men are, you are going to need our help in locating targets. I will be more than happy to brief you on potential targets, their locations, best approach routes as well as their defences."

"Thank you Colonel Haige. I was going to ask you for that kind of Intel. The Raven Guard will need it to conduct raids to demoralise the enemy and to acquire supplies for the campaign."

The Colonel smirked, "I'll tell you everything that I know when we get to your base."

"Agreed we will…"

"Brother-Captain!" the pilot of one of the Thunderhawks suddenly voxed in, "Pokemorph fighter squadron, headed our way. But there's still more than enough time for us to disappear."

"Negative Brother, I will not take the chance that they could follow us back to base. Take them out with the lascannons. No survivors and no hostile witnesses."

"Yes Brother." The pilot's reply was terse as the lascannons on the Gunships powered up and prepared to fire on the hostile aircraft.

Shrike voxed over the battle-net, "Each Thunderhawk will target a separate fighter and open fire as soon as they are in range."

"As you wish Brother-Captain. Engaging hostiles in…five. Four. Three." The pilot calmly counted down to the enemy entering lascannon range as the resistance fighters in the Thunderhawks waited nervously for the arial engagement to be over. The pilot's voice was calm and unwavering as he continued, "Two. One. Engaging now."

The lascannons on the Thunderhawks' fired simultaneously at the fighter squadron. The highly destructive coherent beams of energy raced through the sky at the speed of light, reaching the Pokemorph fighters in nanoseconds. The fighters' armour was no protection against the lascannons as the beams tore through the fighters with ease. There was a series of explosions as the fighters detonated simultaneously, leaving nothing but mangled wreckage falling out of the sky at terminal velocity.

"Targets destroyed." The Raven Guard pilot's statement was made with a calm, clear and level voice over the vox-net. The resistance fighters inside the gunships cheered and laughed at the news of the fighters' destruction.

Captain Shrike voxed Colonel Haige, "Colonel, we are almost at our base, but I would like a disposition of you your forces."

"Well Captain my forces are fifty percent human and fifty percent Pokemon. Most of the soldiers are battle hardened veterans, so I know that I can rely on them to get the job done at any cost." The Shadow Captain sounded pleased as he replied to the Colonel's statement.

"Brother-Captain." The pilot's voice came again, "We are approaching the base." The Captain nodded casually to the Battle-Brother in the cockpit of the Thunderhawk.

Shrike voxed the Colonel again, "Colonel we are almost there. When we land, I want to speak with you and your command staff in the Operations room. I'll show you the way."

"Brother-Captain," the pilot's voice came over the vox again, "we have arrived at the base and are landing now."

"Thank you Brother. Well Colonel when we land you follow me."

"Understood Captain Shrike." the Colonel responded calmly before asking, "What is to be our next course of action Captain?"

"We plan to launch nuisance raids."


	7. Chapter 7

RAVEN GUARD BASE CAMP

Shadow Captain Kayvaan Shrike led Colonel Haige and his command staff down the passage ways and corridors to the Operations room. When they entered the room, they were struck by how large the room was: A high vaulted roof with banners declaring the victories of the Raven Guard Third Company throughout its long and noble history.

Haige and his Captains walked up to the briefing table with the Shadow Captain saying to them, "Colonel. I want you to tell us everything you know about any potential targets."

The Colonel stepped forwards, taking schematics for a power plant and the accompanying substation out of his pack saying, "This is our target gentlemen. This plant and its substations provide the power to millions of Pokemorph homes and two major hospitals. One of them has the Morph's military commander in its surgical ward."

"I take it that you tried to have him killed." Shrike said, leaning on the table.

The Colonel nodded at the Shadow Captain's statement, "We intercepted a communications message yesterday, saying that the High Commander of the Imperial Pokemorph Army was visiting a Barracks in the captured city of Berlin to review the troops stationed there. I sent in a sniper team to kill him. They managed to put a bullet near his heart and escape, but somehow the bastard lived long enough to get to hospital. He will be undergoing surgery in two hours."

The Colonel smiled wickedly, "And that hospital's back-up power generator broke last week, thanks to a team of Deltas and S.A.S from America and Britain respectively. We have made damn sure that they can not replace it with in three hours."

"How did you make sure that they cannot replace their broken generator Colonel?" the Shadow Captain asked the Colonel who replied.

"As the team infiltrated the hospital to sabotage the generator they also killed every Thunder type that could be found. And that's where this substation comes in." he pointed at the schematics, "If we sabotage it and stop it working, then the High Commander will be almost guaranteed to die from heart failure."

The Shadow Captain folded his arms saying, "Well done Colonel Haige. When we are victorious and this system is held by the Imperium. I shall recommend you for a position of honour in governing this world."

"Thank you. But we had better get ready. Operation Blackout is a go."

Twenty minutes later they had assembled the teams that would knock out the substations in the hanger. There were twenty soldiers in all: ten Tactical Marines and ten of the best resistance movement's soldiers and combat engineers, all were determined to make the Pokemorphs pay for the carnage that they had unleashed on their world, and all were ready to kill without hesitation.

The Colonel stood in front of the soldiers with the Shadow Captain standing beside him with his hands clasped behind his back, and his helmeted head held high. Looking at the soldiers the Colonel said, "All right men, you have your orders now go and do them. The Pokemorphs think that we are inferior to them. They burn our homes; kill our friends and families. They think that they can start a war of genocide and get away with it. They are wrong. We shall show them the error of their ways. We shall never forget what they have done, we shall never forgive them. We shall hunt them down like the filth that they really are. We shall drive them into the ground. And we will drive them to the brink of extinction. And as they stare down into the abyss of oblivion, they will know that it is we who are superior and they are filth."

The soldiers cheered and clapped in unison as they boarded the Thunderhawk that would serve as their transport for the mission. As soon as the last trooper was on board, the ramp shut and the Thunderhawk lifted off the ground, its powerful engines propelling it out of the hanger, into the dark, frigid night sky.

POWER SUBSTATION

NINETY MINUTES LATER

Veteran-Sergeant Ardiaac Vannes made a swift, silent hand gesture, ordering his squad to spread out and move quietly towards the objective. As they did so a resistance soldier, whispered over the comm. channel that they were using, "What's the plan when we get there sir?" The Veteran-Sergeant's reply was just as quiet, "We kill any guards that are stationed there. As soon as that is done, we set charges near the terminals and transformers. When the surgery reaches a critical stage, we blow the charges and evacuate. Any questions?"

Vannes and his squad checked the Stalker pattern boltguns and the M40 Targeting systems that they had been issued with for the mission, while the human soldiers checked that the silencers were screwed on securely.

Everyone shook their head to show Vannes that they all understood the mission goals. Vannes nodded, "Good. Let's move." A local resistance member slid down the slope next to the human and Pokemon soldiers saying, "Sir, First Lieutenant Aries Branson, Sir. I just did recon of the substation. There's a pair ah hostile guards by the front gate, with a patrol o' five going around the perimeter roughly every half hour." The man was wearing a fully enclosed battle uniform of the 22nd S.A.S. regiment and he spoke with a broad Scottish accent, "There was also a radio operator an' a sniper in a look-out tower. But they had a nasty accident involving their throats and my garrotte wire and combat knife."

"Good works Lieutenant, thanks for the Intel." Sergeant Vannes whispered quietly. The soldier nodded and said enthusiastically,

"Well, are we gonna sit here all night, or are kill us some Morphs?" Vannes lowered his arm as he patched into the Morph's comm. network. At the same time that the patrol turned the corner and were passing in front of the Allied forces.

The guards' voices were crystal clear over net, "So Frank. Did yah hear the news?" the first voice was calm and casual and not like a proper sentry should.

A second voice answered the first, "Yeah I did Zack, kinda wish I hadn't though."

"I know. But they can't possibly be real though…could they?"

"You mean those 'Raven Guard'? Ha relax will you. They wear thick heavy armour so it must slow them down. That and they're human, which means that they're stupid morons." Vannes had to quietly pray to keep himself from bursting out of cover to slaughter the arrogant fools.

"Yeah you're right. Don't know why I got so worked up about it though." Idiot, Vannes thought, I'll show you who the best really is.

The Morph patrol walked right past the human and Pokemon soldiers completely unaware that they had passed two enemy squads. As soon as they had walked past and had their backs turned, Vannes issued orders using sign-language, 'Take them out. Quietly, no guns.' The Allied soldiers moved into ambush positions and as one attacked.

The first thing that the Morphs knew that they were not alone, was when the Raven Guard and their allies sprang from the shadows, like monstrous daemons of the night. The Morphs didn't even have the time to scream as the Allied forces plunged their combat knives into their chests or shot them with their silenced weaponry. As soon as the patrol had been dealt with, the infiltration team discarded the bodies in a swamp nearby.

When they returned, there was no evidence that the patrol had even existed.

They killed the sentries next, both had been looking at all the wrong shadows as with a surprising lack of noise for someone their sizes, Vannes and Tharios swiftly broke their necks and moved on inside the substation, followed by the rest of the team.

They had accomplished all this in twelve minutes.

Sergeant Alasdair Watson stepped over the bodies of the sentries, sneering at them in hatred and disgust as he did so. He looked at the Raven Guard Sergeant and asked him, "Sir? How long until their leader undergoes surgery?" Vannes looked at his chronometer saying,

"Seventeen minutes. Let's set the charges and wait until we get the signal to blow them."

"Sir!" the Sergeant turned to the other soldiers saying, "All right morons! I want those damn charges set now!" The soldiers and engineers ran off to the transformers, outlets and inlets. Placing demolition charges on them and swiftly arming them, wiring them up to a central detonator that would cause all the charges to explode simultaneously.

Vannes looked at the detonator casually, it was so unassuming: A stick with a red button on it. He smiled, looks can be deceiving. He saw Sergeant Watson walk up to him and say, "Sir, charges are set to blow on the signal." Vannes nodded and opened a screen on the bottom right hand corner of his visor; it was a news broadcast showing the enemy leader in the operating room undergoing the operation.

The Thunderhawk flew in to pick them up and as they climbed aboard, Kayvaan Shrike's voice came over the vox-net, _"Now." _Vannes merely pressed the button, detonating the charges in a spectacular explosion as the Thunderhawk screamed off into the night sky.

Vannes glanced back at the news screen and smiled when he saw the lights go out and everyone panic as their leader suffered a lethal cardiac arrest on the operating table in front of the entire Pokemorph race. Some of the troopers chuckled when Shrike hacked the network to broadcast a chilling message, "Pokemophs. Let this attack be a lesson to you all: No matter where you hide. No matter what fortress you hold yourself up in, we can still kill you. Nowhere is safe, no fortress secure, we will kill you all. And there is nothing, you can do to stop it."

The Thunderhawk continued on its way back to base with the men onboard, cheering and high-fiving each other in celebration.

Operation Blackout was a complete success.

Operation E.D (Economic Destruction) was about to begin.


	8. Chapter 8

ULTRAMARINES BATTLE-BARGE _OCTAVION_

Ultramarines Scout Altharis grunted as he took a solid blow from Scout Sergeant Torias Telion in the abdomen, causing him to be floored with the venerable Sergeant standing over him with his foot on Altharis' neck. Looking down at the young Scout he removed his foot saying, "You're getting better, it took me about thirty seconds to knock you down. Try being more controlled next time. The enemies of Mankind will not hesitate to kill you when you face them in battle."

The young Scout nodded as he stood up and dusted himself down as he loosened his muscles while walking down the training room with the Scout Sergeant by his side. Telion looked at Altharis and said, "I hear that the upcoming campaign will be your first taste of battle." The Scout merely nodded at Telion's statement as they headed down to the firing range, to practice shooting skills. The Sergeant nodded and continued saying, "Don't worry too much, follow the orders you're given, no taking unnecessary risks and you'll be fine."

"Aye, I suppose you're right brother. I mean the foe that we are going to fight is just anthromophic animals. And I don't see how they could be much of a challenge." Altharis shrugged indifferently as he spoke, whilst removing a sniper rifle from the rack, checking it over before loading it. As he raised the scope to his eye to check that the sights were zeroed to his preference. Telion looked at him as the young Scout carefully flicked the safety off the rifle saying, "The xenos may resemble animals with human traits, but you must never underestimate them. What we do know about them, is that they are arrogant in their belief that humans are inferior to them. And for their crimes against Humanity, they shall all be killed."

"Aye brother. Again you are right." Altharis lowered his rifle and propped it up against a wall with the safety on. He leaned against the low wall and asked Telion, "Brother? I know that it is not my place to ask…but," Telion motioned for him to continue with what the Scout had to say, "Well brother, you see. What I'm wondering is about these…'Pokemon' was it?" he thought for a moment before shrugging and continuing, "What I was wondering was what Lord Macragge is going to do with them, after the fighting is done and we are victorious."

Telion thoughtfully stroked his snow-white beard saying, "I do not know what Lord Macragge plans to do with the Pokemon." He shook his head and continued, "Anyway let's forget about it for now and continue with some target practice." Altharis nodded and picked up the sniper rifle once more and aimed down range.

RAVEN GUARD BASE CAMP

"Hey Isaac! Let's watch the news, so we can see what those Morph bastards think of us now!" a male Arcanine soldier from England shouted loudly from the back of the room they were in. Another trooper switched the T.V. on saying, "John, you know what those fuckers think of us. But if it shuts you up, then here." He casually changed the channel onto the news as he looked at John, who was sitting beside him and cleaning his orange-black-and-white coloured fur coat.

John was a Sergeant and had joined up not long after the war's beginning, while Isaac had enlisted only a couple of years back and was a Corporal. He and Isaac had become great friends, hitting it off as soon as they had first met.

The news spokesperson was a female Dratini morph wearing glasses and a business-like suit, she looked at the camera saying, "The High Commander of the Grand Imperial Pokemorph army, has died in hospital. He was killed when human and Pokemon Terrorists blew up a critical power-substation in Germany last night causing vital machinery in the hospital to fail and the High Commander to suffer a fatal heart attack on the operating table." Some of the soldiers cheered as this was said. The Morph continued, "Military officials have declared a day of mourning for the Commander. They have also said that 'all further attempts by the humans and the Pokemon to resist their inevitable destruction, will be severely punished'."

Isaac switched the T.V. off whilst looking at John, whilst simply saying, "Told you so."

The door opened as a Raven Guard entered, Isaac saluted as he recognised the Marine as Kayvaan Shrike. Shrike walked up to the two soldiers saying in a voice loud enough for everyone to hear, "You know, when I first started this campaign," all heads in the room turned to face him as the Shadow Captain continued speaking, "I would have ordered your destruction." He paused as if to gather the correct words with which to speak, "But I have seen with my own eyes, more than enough proof that your entire kind is more than worthy of existence in the Imperium." Some of the soldiers, human and Pokemon started cheering and applauding as Shrike resumed speaking, "You have all proved your loyalty, your bravery, your skill in battle and above all else, your dedication to the human race." The applause became if anything even louder as he finished, "I do not lie when I say this: It is an honour to have met and to fight alongside a brave and noble race such as yours. I salute you all."

The allied soldiers in the room cheered and applauded even louder, but fell quiet when Kayvaan Shrike raised his hand in an appeal for silence as he told them, "Over the following weeks, we are going to launch multiple strikes, to destabilise the Pokemorph's economy and stretch their resources and morale to breaking point. Operation Economy Destruction will begin tomorrow. Our targets are slave markets, sewage treatment plants, aqueducts, bridges, power stations, dams as well as food and fuel silos."

The soldiers cheered once more as the Shadow Captain left the room without another word, he didn't have to. They were all motivated by the latest successes, the Astartes themselves and the prospect of revenge.

The fleet from Ultramar was two days from arriving in-system.

MORPHDON (FORMERLY LONDON) TWO DAYS LATER

The Pokemorphs of Morphdon were relaxing in the warm, midday sun that hung overhead. Their mood was happy and cheerful, but it was dampened both by the death of the High Commander two days before, and the chilling, threatening message that the Astartes Captain had delivered so coldly over the network.

The non-stop raids and attacks on their economy had not helped matters either. Fuel silos blown up, grain stores torched or emptied, bridges had been demolished, aqueducts mined, sewage treatment plants had been destroyed and substations bombed. As a direct result of the raids, clean water had become hard to acquire and power-cuts were becoming more frequent as the Military took priority over the civilian population for supplies.

Today however Morph children ran about parks and play areas laughing and playing games happily, while their parents watched them carefully for any sign of trouble.

Off duty soldiers strolled about with a nervous quietness about them, their eyes habitually darting around, looking for hidden snipers, explosives and a vast multitude of other dangers that were not there. Everywhere they looked was an image of peace and happiness, with no humans or Pokemon tainting the image.

Deep in space far away from the planet, space twisted and tore asunder as a massive fleet tore through the fragile veil of reality as they dropped out of the warp and into real-space. The fleet consisted of four strike-cruisers, one battle-barge, three Firestorm-class frigates, three Cobra-class destroyers, one Gothic-class cruiser, one Dictator-class carrier, one Mars-class battlecruiser, a Victory-class battleship and three troopships.

The strike-cruisers, the _Vae Victus_ and her sister ships, _Garra de Macragge_, _Fidelis_ and _Valin's Revenge_ moved ahead of the rest of the fleet, swiftly travelling through the void towards Second Earth with utter silence as they swept through the cold, dark vacuum of space, their sensors searching for anything that could threaten the fleet in any way shape or form.

Aboard the _Vae Victus'_ bridge was Lord Admiral Lazlo Tiberius consulted Captain Uriel Ventris of Fourth Company and Chaplain Judd Clausel about the upcoming campaign, "While I would normally believe that this would be an easy campaign. The footage that we were shown has made me wonder whether or not it will be easy."

"We fight in the name of the Emperor and the holy Primarch, Brother. We will be victorious in this glorious campaign of holy retribution." Chaplain Clausel said with confidence and zeal as he spoke to the Lord Admiral.

The Chaplain was an imposing sight in his glossy-black armour and grinning-skull helmet. As he spoke his auto-reactive shoulders moved in sync with the movements and gestures that he made. As he did so the light caught his massive blue shoulder pads with the green trims signifying that he was attached with the Fourth Company. Ventris was about to reply, when they received a message from the Raven Guard strike-cruiser _Raven's Wing_.

After lengthy messages sent between the vessels in High Gothic a plan was drawn up: The Ultramarian reinforcements would link up with the Raven Guard in the centre of the city that the Pokemorphs called 'Morphdon' after attacking and seizing control of the city. The city would then become the primary landing zone for more reinforcements from the Imperium.

The Dauntless-class carrier _Valiant Faith_ moved into position along with the troopships _Imperator's Wrath_, _Shield of Faith_ and _Eternal Vigilance_. While the four strike-cruisers and the battle-barge moved to their positions as well in preparation for the upcoming drop-pod assault that would send hundreds of Astartes in the fire of battle and the inferno of war.

Deep within the vessels of war, the Astartes blessed their wargear, swore oaths of vengeance and duty as they steeled themselves for the conflict to come. Squads of Tactical, Assault and Terminator-armoured Marines along with their Dreadnoughts boarded their assigned drop-pods in preparation for the upcoming assault. The doors on the strike-cruisers and the battle-barge opened sending out two dozen Thunderhawks carrying the heavy equipment that the companies would need to carry the day to victory.

On the planet below the Raven Guard's Thunderhawks were prepared for the battle. On hidden airfields dotted through out the countries of the world, fighter jets were wheeled out in preparation for the beginning of the greatest campaign of their lives.

The marks of fighter jets were numerous: F-15s, F-16s, F-22, MiGs, Warthogs and countless others. All fuelled, armed and ready for the battle. Though they knew that not all of them would return, they were undaunted for they were fighting for the very survival of their species. The Pokemorphs had started a war and now Humanity and the Pokemon were going to finish off their hated foes once and for all.

All over the world soldiers stirred and silently made their way to Morphdon. They were through with running, cowering like animals in the dirt. The time for vengeance was nigh, the time for victory was upon them.

As one, fighters and gunships took off, at the same time that the Pokemorph's radar systems were jammed. In space the drop-pods and Thunderhawks screamed through the atmosphere, causing the Pokemorphs in Morphdon to look up as the pods rained down.

With an enormous bang, the pods slammed down into the ground, vaporising or pulping any who were too close to where they landed with the colossal heat from the thrusters and pressure wave from the landing. Smoke coiled from the pods, the hatches blew open, and the ramps fell down. And as death began to stalk the city streets, the Pokemorphs knew fear and were shown no mercy.


	9. Chapter 9

MORPHDON

"Brothers! Let us destroy this alien filth!" Captain Mikeal Fabain yelled as he back-handed another Pokemorph into a gory pulp with his power fist as he and his battle-brothers ruthlessly tore their way through everything that the Morphs threw at them. "Huh, there is no challenge in this." A battle-brother on Fabian's left said as he hacked through another Morph with his chainsword, in order for him to conserve the ammunition for his plasma gun for more worthy targets. Out of the corner of his left eye, Fabian saw a battle-brother kick the door to a flat off its hinges and unleash a storm of fire from his flamer with a roar of vindication on his lips.

The Tactical squads ran down the road, gunning down the opposition left and right, while the Assault squads bounded from roof to roof, dropping down to street level to destroy points of resistance where they formed; then returning to the roofs once more to eliminate yet another point of resistance by the xenos forces. Dreadnoughts stomped through the streets levelling buildings and gunning down fleeing Morphs with equal ease. Gunfire answered the advancing Astartes but their armour was proof against the tiny calibre rounds that were being fired at them. Terminator armoured Marines teleported onto the bridges and other high concentrations of Morphs and cut them down with storm bolter, assault cannon and powerfist. They advanced through literal hurricanes of fire, walls of water or lightning unscathed thanks to their suits of Tactical Dreadnought Armour.

So far the assault had gone better than expected: A significant percentage of the city's population was dead, two thirds of the city was in Imperial hands without the death of a single battle-brother, Imperial Guard and resistance reinforcements were either en route or on site; and the assault was only four hours old.

Thunderhawk gunships screamed through the air, dropping bombs and strafing streets and roads where the enemy was fleeing, reducing the packed forms of the vile xenos on the streets into gory chunks of meat. The inferior aircraft that the resistance utilised were impressive in their efficiency at doing their function Fabian thought reluctantly as he saw a Morph tank squadron blown up by a volley of AT missiles and rockets from an overhead flight of Warthog ground attack craft from America as the attack craft targeted and destroyed enemy armoured vehicles with volleys of missile and armour piercing chain-gun rounds.

F-16s, MiGs and F-22s roared through the air, intercepting and shooting down the few Morph fighters and flying types that rose to challenge them. Massive aircraft slowly droned through the sky, deploying paratroopers into the city to aid the valiant Space Marines as they blitzed through the city streets and buildings like an unstoppable steel whirlwind.

In a distant shopping mall, far away from the advancing human forces, human and Pokemon commandos quietly snuck towards the back door. Sergeant Alasdair Watson glanced down the scope of his M16A2 assault rifle after he carefully checked the two pistols at his waist. On his right was a standard issue 9mm semi-automatic but the pistol on his thigh was far more powerful: A customised Desert Eagle semi-automatic modified for firing 50. calibre rounds made of tungsten.

As he picked the lock on the door Sergeant Watson glanced at Captain Williams and whispered, "Do you think we'll find anyone sir?" Williams looked at the Sergeant with cold green eyes replying, "I don't know Sergeant. But if we do our orders are to evacuate them out of the city."

"Sir." The Sergeant's reply was blunt as he whipped the sweat away from his blue eyes and after sealing their battle uniforms silently entered the mall.

The soldiers snuck through deserted food halls, sports shops and a host of other stores. They were going through a book store, when one of the soldiers suddenly hissed into the radio, "Dude! What the fuck is that smell!" Sergeant Watson removed his helmet and slammed it back on in disgust after sniffing the air saying, "It smells like they're burning meat and wood."

The Captain walked over to a map of the mall's layout and gasped when he saw what was nearby, to their location. He turned back to the squads hissing urgently, "There's a slave market nearby! That means…oh shit!"

"It means that they're burning the slaves and in all likelihood those slaves are alive." Sergeant Watson finished grimly. Even though it was impossible to see his face, it was clear by his body language that he was enraged and ready to kill. Captain Williams nodded saying, "We need to move, now! Come on!"

The soldiers broke into a run towards the smell of burning flesh, thoughts of vengeance entering their minds as they neared the stench and began to hear distant voices. "Hurry up will you and give me another can of petrol or diesel to throw on the fire. I want to watch these scum burn!"

"Too right mate here you go!"

"Thanks!"

This only caused the commandos to move faster than before. They turned right and saw eight Vulpix Morphs, a Pikachu Morph and a Scyther Morph. Interestingly enough the Scyther Morph seemed to be holding back from helping the other Morphs burn the chained up slaves alive.

In fact the Scyther actually seemed against it. From its voice it was a female, "Listen to me you sick fucks! What you are doing is unacceptable! They haven't done anything to hurt us!" one of the Vulpix Morphs snarled back and from its voice it was also female,

"These human and Pokemon are scum! Nothing more, and if you don't give me that can of fuel behind you, I'll…"

She never got to finish her sentence. That one of the commandos blew her head off with a sniper rifle could be considered by many to be a major contributing factor towards that. Her headless body fell to the ground, gushing arterial blood as the sniper crowed, "BOOM! HEADSHOT!" The Scyther Morph surprised everyone when she started to attack the other Morphs as the commandos charged.

Sergeant Alasdair Watson snarled in vindication as he shot the brains out of the Pikachu Morph with his M16A2 assault rifle as he and his squad ran down the stairs. Pointing at a pair of troopers to his left he shouted, "Get those fires out you two! The rest of you are with me. Now come on we need to save those people!"

The two commandos grabbed a couple of fire extinguishers and started getting to work on combating the blaze while the others either moved into position to run in and save the trapped captives when a path was cleared, or took up defensive positions to protect the squad as they did the rescue work. The Captain desperately called into his radio, "This Callsign Dagger Five Actual to Command, over!"

"This is Command we read you Dagger Five, what wrong? Over." The Captain glanced back to see the squad rush into the store as the others tried to keep the flames at bay. "We found a load of slaves that the Morphs were going to torch, sir. We killed the Morphs and are rescuing the slaves now; we need a Thunderhawk to get these people to Medical. Over."

"Understood Dagger Five. Hold position and await gunship evac for those people, I'll alert Medical. Out."

"Copy, Dagger Five out." He lowered his hand from his radio and looked up in time to see the last of the former slaves being pulled out of the store.

The Medics attached to the section moved to treat the wounded as Sergeant Watson and Captain Williams approached the Scyther Morph's badly wounded form. Even though the two soldiers were not trained in medical procedures it was blatantly obvious that her wounds were fatal. Captain Williams knelt down in front of her while Sergeant Watson and another commando covered her with their assault rifles.

The Morph looked at Williams smiling weakly when she saw him. It was clear to everyone that she didn't have much time left. She weakly gestured for him to reach into one of her jacket pockets saying weakly, "In there. You'll…find…the…answers, in…there." She slumped down with a final, rasping exhale, her life extinguished.

Captain Williams grimaced as he reached into the indicated pocket and pulled out a plastic I.D. card, and a small metal badge engraved with the words 'Loyal to Humanity unto death'. The Captain stared at it before looking back at the corpse a horrific suspicion stealing over him.

He knew that the type of badge that he was holding, were only issued to the hardiest of soldiers; those that had been tortured by the enemy but refused to speak a word to their captors. Williams glanced back and saw that Sergeant Watson was going through the dead Morphs' pockets looking for things to 'acquire' as the Sergeant had put it.

A Raven Guard Thunderhawk swept down, landing on the street outside the mall. With a gesture Williams and the commandos escorted the freed slaves to the gunship for evacuation to Medical. Captain Williams stuck a finger in his ear so he could hear what Command was saying on the radio to him as they boarded, "Good work on freeing those slaves Dagger Five. The Raven Guard are reporting that all enemy reinforcements have either been destroyed or forced to retreat with high casualties. We've taken the city. The battle is over."

A commando slapped the Captain's arm pointing off to another part of the city. The Captain turned and gaped at the sight of multiple heavy landers descending, flights of fighters both resistance and Imperial flew through the air. Turning back to his squad Sergeant Watson smiled, "The Pokemorph's days are numbered now aren't they sir." The Captain looked at him but didn't respond there was no need; his eyes said it all.

The tide had turned in Humanity's favour and there was nothing that the Pokemorphs could do about it.


End file.
